Educational system and method having virtual classrooms

ABSTRACT

A system for instruction a student comprises an online learning system having one or more nodes that creates a learning session at a session start time. The online learning node creates a learning environments having a virtual classroom such that at the virtual class room, at least one student can view the activity associated with at least one other student with or without teacher involvement. A database stores one or more matching parameters for matching on or more students with one or more teachers. A matching node selects a teacher for a plurality of students for the online learning session based on the one or more matching parameters. The online learning node places the plurality of students in the virtual class room after the matching node matches the teacher and one or more students and prior to the session start time. According to another aspect, the virtual classroom is created between a first online learning session and a second online learning session scheduled for a student consecutively.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 60/787,636, filed Mar. 31, 2006, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This application isrelated to U.S. patent application titled “HYBRID SYSTEM AND METHOD FOROFFERING IN-CENTER AND ONLINE LEARNING SESSIONS”, attorney docket no.42610-243626; U.S. patent application titled “RULE BASED SYSTEM ANDMETHOD FOR CHARGING STUDENT ACCOUNTS”, attorney docket no. 42610-243631;U.S. patent application titled “ACTIVITY BASED SYSTEM AND METHOD FORCHARGING STUDENT ACCOUNTS”, attorney docket no. 42610-243917; U.S.patent application titled “TEACHER ASSIGNMENT BASED ON STUDENT/TEACHERRATIOS”, attorney docket no. 42610-243639; U.S. patent applicationtitled “TEACHER ASSIGNMENT BASED ON RESPONSIBLE AUTHORITY OR THIRD-PARTYATTRIBUTES”, attorney docket no. 42610-243643; and U.S. patentapplication titled “TEACHER ASSIGNMENT BASED ON TEACHER PREFERENCEATTRIBUTES”, attorney docket no. 42610-243641, all of which are filedconcurrently herewith and are hereby incorporated by reference in theirentirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates generally to a learning system and method,and more particularly, to an online learning system and method.

2. Description of the Related Art

Individualized non-virtual and virtual learning environments are known.Learning centers have been used to provide individualized non-virtuallearning environments to students in brick and mortar classes to achieveeducational goals. It is demonstrated that students can excel andimprove immensely from the individualized attention offered by privateteachers in leaning centers. One such learning center is known as SylvanLearning Center®, groups of which are managed and/or operated byfranchisees and/or corporate entities. Managing and operating somelearning centers involve hiring private teachers, performing variousdiagnostic-assessment tests of students' skill, prescribingindividualized learning curriculums, conducting in-center learningsessions, tracking students' progress and making adjustments toprescribed curriculum. Efforts have been made to automate handwrittenand paper-and-pencil testing using computer based systems. U.S. Pat. No.6,146,148, titled “Automated testing and electronic instructionaldelivery and student management system,” which is hereby incorporated byits entirety, discloses a computer-based diagnostic and prescriptivestudent assessment system for use in tutoring and supplemental educationfor expediting academic learning through skill gap closure.

Various types of known virtual learning environments (VLEs) aredisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,729,885 titled “LEARNING SYSTEM AND METHODFOR ENGAGING IN CONCURRENT INTERACTIVE AND NON-INTERACTIVE LEARNINGSESSIONS,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,296 titled “LEARNING SYSTEM AND METHODFOR HOLDING INCENTIVE-BASED LEARNING,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,804,489 titled“LEARNING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TEACHER LOAD BALANCING,” and U.S. Pat.No. 6,733,295 titled “LEARNING SYSTEM FOR ENABLING SEPARATETEACHER-STUDENT INTERACTION OVER SELECTED INTERACTIVE CHANNELS,” all ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

In such VLEs, one or more teacher workstations and one or more studentworkstations are connected to each other over a network, e.g., theInternet, allowing teachers to send instructional material and contentto students over the network. The teachers can also see what eachstudent is doing on the display of the teacher workstation upon receiptof corresponding text or images from the student workstations. One ormore databases accessible over the network store the instructionalmaterial along with other teacher, student and responsible authoritydata using suitably configured data formats and records. The learningenvironment within each learning session uses learning workspaces in theform of student or teacher workbooks, shared whiteboards, etc.

Also known are interactive learning sessions established within VLEs.During such learning sessions, teachers work on instructional materialwith students. Via interactive voice channels, for example, a teachercan orally interact with one or more students either independently orconcurrently. Non-interactive sessions with students are held separatelyfrom interactive sessions. During non-interactive sessions,instructional material presented to the students does not requireteacher interactions. A combination of interactive and non-interactivelearning sessions can be held with a plurality of students, where ateacher can hold an interactive learning session with one student, whileanother student engages in a non-interactive learning session. Theteacher can switch one or more students from interactive learningsessions to non-interactive learning sessions and vice versa as theteacher sees fit to accommodate students' educational needs.

One conventional VLE uses a client-server-computing model for creatingvarious learning environments during learning sessions. The students andteachers can utilize wired and/or wireless devices that act as clientworkstations for one or more servers, which serve instructional materialvia the network. The students, student guardians, teachers and directorsmay be required to go through a log-in session before engaging inlearning sessions or reviewing information such as student grades,progress reports, etc. Other arrangements that do not require a log-insession can also be used.

Web-site access and an intranet access has been used in the past toallow access for teachers, directors, students and parents. A teacherworkstation can allow access to various electronic student informationto which a teacher-only permission is applied for displaying informationabout students in upcoming sessions. The teacher workstation can allowaccess to teacher schedule data with links to a scheduling database thatstores scheduling data. Known VLEs support web-sites where learningsystem participants, e.g., students, teacher, etc., can interact witheach other through learning web sites. Examples of learning web sitesinclude teacher site, director site, student site, and guardian orparent site.

Student site can be accessible to students with age appropriategraphical screens displayed based on student attributes. It is alsoknown to provide the site with links for educational games that astudent can play, while waiting for the start of learning sessions afterhe or she logs in. However, there still remains a need to addressvarious interactive needs of students enrolled in VLEs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly, according to the present invention, a system for instruction astudent comprises an online learning system having one or more nodesthat creates a learning session at a session start time. The onlinelearning node creates a learning environments having a virtual classroomsuch that at the virtual class room, at least one student can view theactivity associated with at least one other student with or withoutteacher involvement. A database stores one or more matching parametersfor matching on or more students with one or more teachers. A matchingnode selects a teacher for a plurality of students for the onlinelearning session based on the one or more matching parameters. Theonline learning node places the plurality of students in the virtualclass room after the matching node matches the teacher and one or morestudents and prior to the session start time. According to anotheraspect, the virtual classroom is created between a first online learningsession and a second online learning session scheduled for a studentconsecutively.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features and advantages of the invention will be furtherunderstood from the following detailed description of the embodiments ofthe invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, which showin:

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a learning system according to oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2A shows an exemplary block diagram of a learning center includingan administrative environment.

FIGS. 2B-C show exemplary block diagrams of a learning center havingnon-virtual classrooms.

FIG. 2D shows an exemplary block diagram of a virtual learning center.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary block diagram of an online learning system.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary block diagram of operation layers of theonline learning system of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary flow chart of an enrollment utility processfor enrolling a student in an online educational program.

FIGS. 6A-C show exemplary enrollment screens of an enrollment utility.

FIG. 7 shown an exemplary flow chart of a synchronization utility forsynchronizing various data and information within the system.

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary flow chart of the user login process.

FIGS. 9A-C show exemplary screenshots of a student login screen, astudent homepage, and a student learning session screen.

FIGS. 10A-C show exemplary screenshots of a teacher login screen, ateacher homepage, and a teacher learning session screen.

FIGS. 11A-B show exemplary screenshots of a responsible authority loginscreen and a responsible authority homepage.

FIG. 12 is an exemplary flow diagram of the process taken by the sessionmanagement utility placing teachers and students in appropriate learningsessions.

FIG. 13 is an exemplary sequence diagram of a session management processused in the system shown in FIG. 1.

FIGS. 14A-E are exemplary flow charts implementing one embodiment of anaccounting utility used in system of FIG. 1 for charging learningsessions to student accounts.

FIGS. 15A-B are exemplary flow diagrams for an educational method havingvirtual classroom.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overall System Description and Definitions

According to one aspect, the present invention relates to a hybridsystem and method that combines in-center and online learning. Oneembodiment of the invention delivers instructional material for aneducational program (e.g., courses, subjects, lessons, skills, etc,)during In-center and online learning sessions that are scheduled fordifferent instances of time. Another embodiment uses an intelligentbased accounting system for charging online learning sessions to studentaccount. Accounting can be rule based. Examples of rules are responsibleauthority rules or third party rules. Accounting can be activity based.Activities can be student activities or channel activities. Studentactivities relate to student conduct towards a learning session, (e.g.,“no show,” “late,” “short” etc.). Channels activities can be qualitativeor quantitative (e.g., data rates, bit rate, packet monitoring andetection, etc.). Another embodiment uses intelligence based matchingfor increasing revenues and reducing operating cost. Learning sessionmatching can be based on teacher qualification for teaching differentstudent/teacher ratios. In still another embodiment, teachers arematched based on student or teacher preference parameters. In yetanother embodiment, teachers are matched based on responsible authorityor third party rules and requirements. Another aspect of the system andmethod of the invention places matched teachers and students ininteractive community rooms before delivering instructional materialduring scheduled learning sessions.

A learning system and method according to the present invention createsone or more learning environments in one or more learning center and/orover a network. A learning center comprises any environment that has anadministrator for enrolling students for instructional purposes. Anetwork comprises a plurality of privately or publicly connected nodesthat are enabled to exchange information over one or more links. Avirtual learning center comprises any computer-simulated learning centercreated over a network. Exemplary networks comprise any one or more ofWANs, LANs, PANs, Internet or Extranets. The Internet is a collection ofinterconnected (public and/or private) networks that are linked togetherby a set of standard protocols to form a global, distributed network. Anode comprises any one or more of unit(s) (software or hardware or both)or device(s) anywhere in the network that processes information an/orperforms an attributed function. Example of nodes include server nodes,client nodes, computer nodes, processing node, communication nodes, workstations, PDAs, mobile devices, data entry node, scheduling node,accounting node, matching node, instructional delivery node, teacherselection node, etc. The nodes can be connected to each other accordingto any suitable network model, including but not limited to clientserver models as well as a hierarchical or distributed models. Linkcomprises any medium over which two nodes communicate information witheach other. Exemplary links include but are not limited to wired, fiber,cable, or wireless links. Communication channel comprises any channelused with a link for delivery of learning or instructional materialcontent, or environments to a student.

A learning environment comprises any environment created usinginstructional material or content, including learning workspaces, sharedwhiteboards, reference tools, such as a dictionary, encyclopedia,thesaurus, calculator, games, etc. Instructional material means anymaterial of instructional value used for instructing a student or forassessing a student's skills. Examples of instructional material are anyone of work sheets, practice sheets, problem sets as well instructionalaudio, video, text, image, lectures, briefs, papers, software,environment, simulation, interface, content, presentations, documents,media files, test material, etc. Electronic instructional materialcomprises any instructional material that is delivered over a network.Exemplary electronic instructional materials comprise any instructionalmaterial delivered via electronic student or teacher work books.

A Learning environment can be created within a learning session or aclassroom. A learning session comprises any session during whichinstructional material is delivered to one or more students. Onlinelearning session means any learning session that takes place over anetwork. In-center learning session means any learning session thattakes place at a learning center. A classroom comprises any environmentthat allows for interaction amongst a plurality of students with orwithout a teacher. Non-virtual classroom comprises any physical or reallife classroom. Exemplary non-virtual classrooms comprise any brick andmortar classrooms.

A virtual classroom comprises any computer simulated classroom createdover a network. Exemplary virtual classrooms comprise text, audio orvideo or media chat rooms where students interact with each other over anetwork with or without teacher involvement.

Learning sessions may be associated with one or more educationalprograms. An educational program comprises any program that requiresattendance of a student in one or more learning sessions. Examples ofeducational programs include math, reading, algebra, homework help, testpreparation, tutoring, etc. An educational program may comprise anin-center educational program requiring in-center learning sessions, anonline educational program requiring online learning sessions, or ahybrid educational program that includes both in-center and onlinelearning sessions.

Enrollment means any process where enrollment information associatedwith a student (e.g., student name, grade level and/or demographicinformation) is entered into a database to create a student account forattending one or more learning sessions. Enrollment may take placein-center or online. In-center Enrollment refers to any enrollment of astudent at a learning center. Online Enrollment refers to any enrollmentof a student over a network. A student may enroll for an in-centereducational program, an online educational program, or a hybrideducational program, using in-center Enrollment and/or onlineEnrollment. A responsible authority may or may not be associated with astudent. A responsible authority associated with a student comprises anyperson, entity or authority that is responsible for a student account.Examples of responsible authorities are parents, guardians, public orprivate school officials, etc.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is depicted a block diagram of a learningsystem 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention. According to this embodiment, a plurality of learning centers104 a, 104 b, 104 c are connected to an online learning portal 102through a network, such as the Internet 120. Also connected to theonline learning portal 102 via the Internet 120 are a plurality of usernodes 116 located in, for example, home 110 a, office 110 b, or an areaof public access 110 c. A user node can be a wireless node 108 used byan individual user 106 for connecting to the network. The users 106, 114at the user nodes 108, 116 can be students, teachers, responsibleauthorities, learning center administrators, learning center staff,learning center directors, etc. Alternatively, the user may be aresponsible authority for a student registered at one or more learningcenters 104 a-c. The user may also be a responsible authority for a verylarge group of students, for example, a school district director.

The online portal 102 provides a gateway between the user nodes 108,116, the learning centers 104 a-c, and the online learning system 130through the network 120. The online learning system 130 provideslearning environments during which teachers and students can hold onlinelearning sessions. In one exemplary embodiment, the online learningsystem 130 can be a stand alone system that can provide online learningsessions to a plurality of students. In another exemplary embodiment,the online learning system 130 is coupled to a plurality of learningcenters 104 a-c through the online learning portal 102 and providesonline learning sessions to students associated with the learningcenters 104 a-c.

Learning centers may be of different types and be identified as such.Some can be categorized according to their relationship with the onlinelearning system 130. For example, some learning centers may be owned byfranchisees of the entity that owns and operate the online learningsystem 130 (i.e. franchisee learning centers), whereas other learningcenter(s) may be owned by an independent entity (i.e. corporate learningcenters, third-parties, affiliates, non-profit organizations, etc). Inone embodiment, a different billing and scheduling utility is providedbased on learning center types. To identify the learning center ascorporate or franchisee, a center identification number that isassociated with the learning center designates the learning center, forexample, as a corporate or a franchisee learning center.

The learning system 130 supports and includes all of the featuresdisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,379 titled “METHOD FOR DISPLAYINGINSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL DURING A LEARNING SESSION,” U.S. Pat. No.6,729,885 titled “LEARNING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENGAGING IN CONCURRENTINTERACTIVE AND NON-INTERACTIVE LEARNING SESSIONS,” U.S. Pat. No.6,733,296 titled “LEARNING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR HOLDING INCENTIVE-BASEDLEARNING,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,804,489 titled “LEARNING SYSTEM AND METHODFOR TEACHER LOAD BALANCING,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,804,489 titled “LEARNINGSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TEACHER LOAD BALANCING,” and U.S. Pat. No.6,733,295 titled “LEARNING SYSTEM FOR ENABLING SEPARATE TEACHER-STUDENTINTERACTION OVER SELECTED INTERACTIVE CHANNELS,” all of which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

As described later in more detail, the online learning system 130provides the necessary user interfaces for the students and teachers tocommunicate with one another, for example, allowing the teacher tointeract with and monitor student activities. The online learning system130 also includes one or more databases containing electronicinstructional material delivered to students during online learningsessions. The online learning system also includes one or more databasescontaining session disposition, demographics, outcomes, learning plans,assessments, progress tracking, etc.

The online portal 102 provides an interface between the users, e.g.teachers, students, and responsible authorities, and the online learningsystem 130. The online portal 102 also provides an interface forlearning center directors to access the online learning system 130. Theonline portal 102 is provided with a portal database 140 which storesuser information for all users enrolled or associated with aneducational program. The online portal 102 provides means for users tolog into the online learning system 130 with a user ID and password.Based on the access privilege associated with the user ID, the onlinelearning portal 102 may authenticate the user as a teacher, a student, aresponsible authority, a director, etc. The online learning portal 102also tracks the student and teacher's scheduling, attendance, andbilling. Finally, the online learning portal 102 synchronizes thestudent profile and other student information stored between the onlinelearning system 130 and the learning center 104 a-c where the student isenrolled.

In one exemplary embodiment, a student or teacher user is associatedwith one or more learning centers 104 a-c. For example, the student user114 may be enrolled at the learning center 104 a and registered toattend in-center learning sessions for math, while another student user106 may be enrolled at the learning center 104 b and registered toattend in-center learning sessions in reading. Further, a student usermay also be enrolled in educational programs at two or more learningcenters 104 a-c, attending corresponding in-center learning sessions ateach learning center.

The teachers and students can also hold online learning sessionsremotely from their mobile devices 108, homes 110 a, offices 110 b, orother public access areas 110 c, without having to attend in-centerlearning sessions. Through these online learning sessions, a teacher canassign homework and instructional material to a student enrolled at alearning center, monitor the student's progress, grade the student, andinterface with the student through interactive communication channels inreal time or asynchronous modes.

A learning center 104 a-c may prescribe an educational program (i.e. aprescription) for each student that is tailored to the student'sspecific educational needs. For example, the prescription may includecertain skill gaps in the student's math, science, or reading abilityand provide a learning program to the student that is aimed at realizingthe student's grade level. An educational system and method implementingthe foregoing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,146,148 titled “AUTOMATEDTESTING AND ELECTRONIC INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY AND STUDENT MANAGEMENTSYSTEM,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Hybrid Educational System and Method

According to one aspect of the present invention, a student enrolled ata learning center 104 a-c can and/or an online educational program viathe online learning system 130 can attend both online and in-centersessions. In the system of the present invention, a student can, via theonline learning system, enroll in an online educational program that isnot associated with a learning center and disenroll from the programupon its completion. A student can also enroll in one or more onlineeducational programs that are offered in relation to, or in conjunctionwith learning centers, where a learning center 104 a-c and the onlinelearning system 130 can both contribute to one or more learning programsenrolled by the student, thereby creating a hybrid learning environmentin which the student can benefit from both in-center and online learningsessions. In an exemplary embodiment, a student enrolled in one or moreeducational program (e.g. mathematics, reading, algebra, etc.) at alearning center 104 a-c can also attend, if necessary or desired, onlinelearning sessions offered by the online learning system 130.

According to this aspect of the present invention, a student enrollmentnode within the system enrolls students in one or more educationalprograms that deliver instructional material to the student at differentinstances of time. At a first instance of time, the instructionalmaterial is delivered to the student during an in-center learningsession. At a second instance of time, the instructional material isdelivered to the student during an online learning session. In anexemplary embodiment, a learning center delivers the instructionalmaterial (physically or electronically) during the in-center learningsession, and an electronic instructional delivery node deliverselectronic instructional material during the on line learning session.Instance of time can relate to any time or temporal parameter during anhour, day, week, month, year, etc. For example, the first instance oftime can be one time of a weekday and second instance of time can beanother time of the same or another weekday.

The student may enroll in an educational program on line, in-center, orboth at any time. The student may also enroll at an in-centereducational program at one time and enroll for the online educationalprogram at a different time. Similarly, the student may enroll for anonline educational program at one time and later complement the onlineeducational program by enrolling at an in-center educational program andvice versa.

According to another embodiment of the invention, if the student enrollsfor an online and an in-center educational programs, a determination ismade as to whether the two educational programs can be combined. If theonline educational program is related to the in-center educationalprogram, the two programs are combined and/or correlated with each otherto provide a hybrid learning environment in which the student canbenefit from both in-center and online learning sessions. However, ifthe two programs are unrelated, then the two programs are not combined.

For example, if the student enrolls for online algebra and in-centertrigonometry, the two educational programs are not combined because thesubject matters are not related. Similarly, if the student enrolls foronline basic reading and in-center advanced reading where theinstructional material provided in the online reading program aredifferent from the instructional material provided the in-center readingprogram, then the two reading programs are not combined. However, if thestudent enrolls in an online basic math program and an in-center basicmath program, the two math programs can be combined into a hybrid mathprogram, wherein the student can take an online math learning sessionsat a first instant, and later continue where he left off during anin-center learning session at a second instant. The online learningsystem 130 and learning centers 104 a-c are provided with informationfor coordinating switching between online and in-center learningsessions.

The determination to combine the online educational program and thein-center education program can depend on a variety of factors and cantake place in any suitably configured node. In an exemplary embodiment,the determination is based on the level of similarity of the curriculaassociated with the online and in-center educational programs and/orwhether the two curricula are combinable. In another exemplaryembodiment, the determination is based on whether the two programs offeridentical or similar instructional material.

After any one or more of the enrollments described above, one or morestudent accounts are created in connection with enrolled educationalprograms. Lesson sequencing between the two modes are combined andupdated through two-way communication between the in-center and onlinesystems. A scheduling node associates each student account with one ormore learning sessions selected based on student and teacher schedules.After scheduling, the student can attend in-center or online learningsessions at different times before or after each other and in any orderfor completing an educational program. The schedules for attendingin-center and online learning sessions can be modified at any time toaccommodate teacher and student availability.

In one exemplary embodiment, the educational program comprises aplurality of educational components, e.g., courses, subjects, lessons,Intended Learning Objectives (ILOs), skills, tests, etc. ILOs areobjectives set at each grade level to determine what student needs tolearn, for example, 5PS12 Solve word problems involving perimeter or7MI/I Main Idea Implied. Under this arrangement, one instructionalmaterial is associated with a first educational component deliveredduring the in-center learning session and another instructional materialis associated with a second educational component delivered during theonline learning session. In this way, different educational components,e.g., subjects, can be delivered at different times either in-center oronline in a hybrid manner.

For example, a learning center can deliver instructional materialrelated to a first subject to the student during an in-center learningsession and an instructional material delivery node can deliverinstructional material related to a second subject during an onlinelearning session either before or after the in-center session.

Under this aspect of the present invention, students attend an in-centerlearning session in the learning center 104 a-c during one time period(e.g. Monday from 2-3 pm), and attend an online learning session duringanother time period (e.g. Tuesday from 6-7 pm). In one exemplaryembodiment, the system and method of the present invention tracks thestudent's activity during the first time period, i.e., in-centerlearning session, so that the student may continue where he left offduring the second time period, i.e., the online learning session. Forexample, if the student completes lesson 1 and half of lesson 2 of themath program during the in-center learning session at his learningcenter 104 a-c, the student may take the following learning sessiononline where he can continue with the second half of lesson 2.

Therefore, one aspect of the present allows for student attendance inonline and in-center learning sessions conducted during differentinstances of time to be tailored to accommodate instant or plannedinstructional needs. This feature offers the students and responsibleauthorities the flexibility for adapting to various circumstances thatmay arise in the course of students completing one or more educationalprograms. For example, a student unable to attend an in-center learningsession, for example, due to unforeseen or planed circumstances, such asemergency sickness or scheduled vacation, can still continue with theprogram by attending online sessions, remotely, e.g., from home orvacation.

Another embodiment allows for student to enroll in one educationalprogram at a learning center and later enroll in the same educationalprogram in the online learning system 130 after disenrolling from thelearning center. Such enrolment and disenrollment of students betweenlearning center programs and online programs can be based on studentneeds. One embodiment maps and synchronizes learning center and onlineindividual learning objective (ILO) parameters, e.g., status, codes,etc., based on specified rules that track student activities between oneor more learning centers and the online learning system whilemaintaining seamless online and in-center educational program deliveryeven when students transfer between online and in-center learningsessions. In another embodiment, a student can be enrolled in differenteducational programs online or in the learning centers. For example, astudent can be enrolled in one educational program by registering totake online sessions. The same student can be enrolled in anothereducational program in a learning center by taking in-center learningsessions.

FIG. 2A depicts an exemplary block diagram of a learning center 104. Thelearning center 104 includes one or more classrooms 202 a-b and anadministrative environment 206. The administrative environment 206includes a learning center server 210 providing connectivity to theInternet 120. The administrative environment 206 also includes a systemadministrator 214 who monitors and administers the local server 210through a workstation 212.

The learning center server 210 has an educational operating utility(EOU) that provides the platform for creating in-center learningsessions as well as delivering instructional material to students duringthe in-center learning sessions. The learning center server 210 iscoupled to an EOU Database 222 which stores students' information,including the student profiles, and the instructional material. Duringthe in-center learning session, the EOU retrieves the student profileassociates with a student from the EOU Database 222 and, based on thestudent profile, retrieves the appropriate instructional material fromthe EOU Database 222 to create an in-center learning session for thestudent. The learning center server 210 is also coupled to an EOU LookupDatabase 220, which is used to store student information for audit andlookup purposes.

In one embodiment, the EOU tracks the students' activities and progressand update the student's profile accordingly. In an alternateembodiment, at the conclusion of an in-center learning session, theteacher or other center staff updates each student's profile based onthe student's activities and progress during the in-center learningsession. The student's profile is updated in the EOU database 222.

In addition to the EOU, the learning center server 210 is also providedwith a billing utility and a scheduling utility. In an exemplaryembodiment, the billing and scheduling utility stores a learning centerschedule at the scheduling database 226 coupled to the learning centerserver 210. The billing and scheduling utility uses the learning centerschedule to create the student schedule periodically, e.g., daily,weekly, monthly, etc. basis. The billing and scheduling utility does soby matching the student's schedule with a teachers' schedule, which isalso stored in the scheduling database 226. In one embodiment, thebilling and scheduling utility is associated with a matching utility tocreate the student schedule, the details of which are explained indetail later.

In an exemplary embodiment, the billing and scheduling utility is alsoresponsible for tracking the students' attendance. For in-centerlearning sessions, the teacher or other center staff may input datarelating to students' attendance after the conclusion of the learningsession. The student attendance record is stored in the schedulingdatabase 226 or the billing database 228, which is also coupled to thelearning center 210.

As described later, a billing and scheduling utility monitors detect andtracks the student's attendance in online sessions based on a set ofpredefined rules, which include, e.g., the time of student's login andlogout, number of lessons scored, academic and technical sessionfeedback, etc. In an exemplary embodiment, a set of billing rulesrelating to billing the students is stored at the billing database 228.Such rules define the circumstances under which a learning session canbe billed. The billing and scheduling uses the student's schedule, theattendance records, and the billing rules to recommend a bill for thestudent.

FIGS. 2B-C depict exemplary block diagrams of various types of learningcenters 104 a-c. Specifically, FIG. 2B shows an exemplary block diagramof a learning center 104 a including a plurality of non-virtualclassrooms 202 a, 202 b, such as conventional brick and mortarclassrooms. The non-virtual classrooms 202 a-b are connected to theadministrative environment 206 (specifically, the learning center server210 within the administrative environment 206) via a local area network216. Inside each non-virtual classroom 202 a-b, there are a teacherworkstation 230 and a plurality of student workstations 232-238, whichallow the teacher 240 and students 242-248 to hold in-center learningsessions at the non-virtual classrooms. In one embodiment, the teacherworkstation 240 and student workstations 242-248 are equipped with apen-based tablet input and a display. The teacher workstation 240communicates with the student workstations 242-248 through the network216. Through the LAN 216 (or any WAN, or Internet), the teacher 240conducts the learning session by holding guided practice (GP) sessionsas well as independent practice (IP) sessions. The teacher 240 alsodelivers instructional material (e.g., electronic workbooks) to thestudent workstations 232-238 through the network 216. After the deliveryof the electronic instructional material, the teacher 240 can alsomonitor each student's progress, grade the student's homework, andinteract with the student through the network 216. Meanwhile, theteacher can deliver physical instructional material to the students,answer students' questions, and interact with the students face-to-faceduring the in-center learning session. Therefore, during the in-centerlearning session, the students 242-248 benefit from having face-to-faceinteraction with each other and the teacher 240 as in traditionalclassroom environments, while being presented with electronicinstructional material.

In another embodiment of the invention, all electronic instructionalmaterial may be stored in a remote database accessible by a remoteserver (not shown in FIG. 2A). In this embodiment, all workstations230-238 connect to the Internet 120 to access the electronicinstructional material from the remote server. The electronicinstructional material may be provided to the students 242-248 through,for example, java applets embodying electronic student workbooks.

FIG. 2C shows an exemplary block diagram of a learning center 104Bincluding traditional non-virtual classrooms 202 a-b. The classroom 202a-b includes a teacher 250 teaching students 252-258 using physicalinstructional material. Physical instructional materials includeconventional textbooks and any audio-visual instructional material usedto teach the students. In a non-virtual classroom 202 a-b, the students252-258 could write notes or take exams using pen and paper within anin-center learning session. At the conclusion of the in-center learningsessions, or within a certain time thereafter, the teacher 250 oranother learning center staff can report each student's progress on acomputer 260. The computer 260 is connected to server 210 in theadministrative environment 206. Using the computer 260, the teacher 250or center staff can update the student's profile, attendance record,etc. Thus, the student's progress status is known to the system the nexttime the student attends a learning session. Based on the known progressstatus, the system allows for switching between In-class or onlinesessions based on student needs.

FIG. 2D depicts an exemplary block diagram of a virtual learning center104C, in which a plurality of virtual classrooms 202 a-b are provided.Within each virtual classroom 202 a-b, there are a plurality of students282-288 and one or more teachers 280, who hold learning sessions usingworkstations 290-298 connected to the Internet 120. According to anembodiment, the virtual learning center 104C also includes anadministrative environment 206, which, as in the administrativeenvironments of non-virtual learning centers, includes a learning centerserver 210, EOU database 222, billing database 228, scheduling database226, etc. The administrative environment 206 may also include a systemadministrator 214. In one embodiment, the administrative environment 206tracks each student's activity and updates the student's profileaccordingly. The teacher 280 or other center staff may also update ormodify the students' profiles after the conclusion of a virtual learningsession.

In a virtual learning center 104C, in addition to taking online classes,a student may also be provided with online exams, e.g. a pre-enrollmentassessment test. Additionally, the student may enroll for a programonline without a face-to-face meeting with the learning center staff,while the staff create a student profile for the student based on thestudent's assessment test results and provide the student with aschedule. Therefore, a student who cannot attend a nearby learningcenter due to geographic restrictions can enroll at the virtual learningcenter 104C and benefit from the programs similar to those provided byother learning centers 104A-B.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary block diagram of the online learning system130 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Someof the functions of the online learning system 130 include establishingonline learning sessions, development and delivery of electronicinstructional material and content as well as creation of virtuallearning environments for students. According to this embodiment, theonline learning system 130 includes a front-end system 330 and aback-end system 360. The front-end system 330 provides user interfacesto students, teachers, or other users, for access to online learningsessions. The back-end system 360 is used for system administration,instructional material and content development and implementation aswell as application developments for billing, marketing, publicrelations, etc.

The front-end system 330 interfaces with the user devices 304, 308,allowing users 306, 310 to interface with virtual learning environments.Users 306, 310 include teachers, students, responsible authorities,directors, etc. The front-end system 330 provides users 306, 310interactive access to online sessions. The user devices 304, 308, and/ora plurality of learning center servers 210 are coupled to the onlinelearning portal 102 via a network 320, which may be a LAN, WAN, or otherlocal network. The online learning portal 102 acts as a gateway betweenthe front-end system 330, the user devices 304, 308, and a plurality oflearning centers via corresponding learning center servers 210.Alternatively, the user devices 304, 308, and/or learning center servers210 may be coupled to the online learning portal 102 via the Internet120 or through a wired network 324 and/or a wireless network 326.

In an exemplary embodiment, the user devices 304, 308 execute a networkaccess application, such as a browser or any other suitable applicationor applet, for accessing the front-end system 330. The users 306, 310may be required to go through a log-in session before engaging in anonline learning session through the website. Other arrangements that donot require a log-in session may also be provided in accordance withother exemplary embodiments of the invention.

In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the front-end system 330includes a firewall 332, which is coupled to one or more load balancers336 a, 336 b. Load balancers 336 a-b are in turn coupled to one or moreweb servers 336 a-b. For providing online learning sessions, web servers336 a-b are coupled to one or more application servers 338 a-c, each ofwhich includes and/or accesses one or more front-end databases 340, 342,which may be central or distributed databases. Web servers 336 a-b,coupled with load balancers 334 a-b, perform load balancing functionsfor providing optimum online session performance by transferring clientuser requests to one or more of the application servers 338 a-caccording to a series of semantics and/or rules. The application servers338 a-c may include a database management system (DBMS) 346 and/or afile server 348, which manage access to one or more databases 340, 342.In the exemplary embodiment depicted in FIG. 3, the application server338 a and/or 338 b provides instructional content to the users 306, 308,which include electronic interfaces, instructional material, studentprofile, etc. Some of the instructional content is generated via codestored either on the application servers 338 a and/or 338 b, while someother information and content, such as student profiles, instructionalmaterial, teacher schedule, or other information, which is presenteddynamically to the user, is retrieved along with the necessary data fromthe databases 340, 342 via application server 338 c. The applicationserver 338 b may also provide users 302, 306 access to executable fileswhich can be downloaded and installed on user devices 304, 308 forcreating an appropriate virtual learning environments, with branding andor marketing features that are tailored for a particular application,client or customer.

The central or distributed database 340, 342, stores, among otherthings, the web content and instructional material deliverable to thestudents. The database 340, 342 also stores retrievable informationrelating to or associated with students, teachers, responsibleauthorities, parents learning centers, student profiles, billinginformation, schedules, statistical data, attendance data, enrollmentdata, teacher attributes, student attributes, historical data,demographic data, compliance data, certification data, billing rules,third party contract rules, educational district requirements, etc. Anyor all of the foregoing data can be processed and associated asnecessary for achieving a desired learning objective or a businessobjective associated with operating the system of the present invention.For example, historical or statistical data related to studentattendance or schedule and/or teacher availability and schedule may beassociated and/or processed for teacher utilization and capacityplanning as well as teacher workflow management. One exemplary processtakes into account historical cancellation and addition rates for allstudent cohorts for teacher capacity and workflow management. Onexemplary aspect of the invention uses the foregoing data processing todetermine how many teachers are needed and provides the mechanism toincrease or decrease according to demand. By performing the capacityplanning, the system arranges for scheduling more teachers duringspecific times ahead where teacher shortages are expected or “pulling”teacher schedules where teacher overages are expected.

Updated program code and data are transferred from the back-end system360 to the front-end system 330 to synchronize data between databases340, 342 of the front-end system and databases 340 a, 342 a of theback-end system. Further, web servers 336 a, 336 b, which may be coupledto application servers 338 a-c, may also be updated periodically via thesame process. The back-end system 360 interfaces with a user device 350such as a workstation, enabling interactive access for a system user352, who may be, for example, a developer or a system administrator. Theworkstation 350 is coupled to the back-end system 360 via a localnetwork 328. Alternatively, the workstation 350 may be coupled to theback-end system 360 via the Internet 120 through the wired network 324and/or the wireless network 326.

The back-end system 360 includes an application server 362, which mayalso include a file server or a database management system (DBMS). Theapplication server 362 allows a user 352 to develop or modifyapplication code or update other data, e.g., electronic content andelectronic instructional material, in databases 340 a, 342 a.

Referring to FIG. 4, a block diagram of operation layers of the onlinelearning system 130 is shown. As stated above, the online learningsystem 130 can be a stand alone system implementing various inventiveaspects of the present invention. The online learning system shown inFIG. 4 includes student and responsible authority workstations 32 aswell as teacher and director workstations 34. Each work station can be anode connected to the online learning system 130 from any location. Theworkstations 32 and 34 execute suitable application programs, e.g.,browser, etc., for engaging in instructional activities during learningsessions. The learning application program running on a studentworkstation 32 enables a student to interact with a teacher during anon-interactive or an interactive learning session, and the learningapplication program running on the teacher workstation 34 allows ateacher to engage plural students in multiple learning sessions.

Various application program layers for supporting the online learningsystem 130 include a user interface layer 30, collaboration layer 36, aback-end application layer 38, a database layer 40, an operations layer42 and an operation staff layer 44. Each layer or any of its componentscan run on any suitably configured node, including servers orworkstations, anywhere in the system in a central or a distributedmanner.

The user interface layer 30 is responsible for interfacing withteachers, students, parents, responsible authorities, staff, etc. Theuser interface layer 30 receives input from multiple studentworkstations and multiple teacher workstations or any other nodeassociated with a system. The workstations 32 and 34 are equipped withkeyboards, mouse, pen-based tablets, audio headsets, speakers, cameras.In this way, the user interface layer 30 can communicate texts, image,video and audio information with the nodes. In one embodiment, teachersand students can attend learning sessions from any node as long as theirrespective access rights are verified via log-in processes. For example,when a teacher logs in, the system provides the necessary teacher rightsand privileges for instructing a student. In another embodimentimplemented over a private or trusted network, log-in may not benecessary.

In one exemplary embodiment, the user interface layer 30 also interfaceswith an assessment center in a learning center or online. The assessmentcenter can be used for diagnostic-assessment test and prescription forachieving one or more learning objectives, as described later in detail.

With or without an assessment-diagnostic test, as necessary, a studentmay enroll in an educational program offered through the online learningsystem 130. An enrollment node in the back end application layer 38associates student enrollment information with corresponding studentrecords. In one embodiment, for those students that take assessmenttests, student records also include student profiles generated at theassessment center. The back-end application layer 38 also managescontent delivery, teacher student matching, session scheduling andbilling functions as well as customer relationship management (CRM) andcredit card processing. A student incentive processing node supportsincentive-based learning for improvement, participation and effortduring learning sessions as well as links to third party vendor sitesfor redeeming issued reward tokens.

The collaboration layer 36 provides collaboration amongst the systemusers, e.g., teachers and students, during learning sessions. Thecollaboration layers 36 provides shared whiteboards and chat functionsthat may be required in learning sessions. As stated above, thecollaboration layer 36 is responsible for routing and collaboratingservices. The collaboration layer 36 allows utilization of Voice OverInternet Protocols (VOIP) standards in maintaining interactive channelsfor transmitting audio and video information. An interactive channelformed over links is used for holding an interactive session between ateacher and one or more students. The interactive session allows theteacher and students to interact with each other through workbooks and ashared whiteboard during a learning session. A shared whiteboard is ashared display space reserved by the system for conducting interactivelearning activities using various tools such as interactivehighlighters, drawing and graphical tools, and etc. The collaborationlayer 36 also supports chat, e-mail, and other Internet features.

The database layer 40 manages information storage functions related touser and learning content environments, information and data, includingcurriculum, web-site (internet/intranet) content, and other knowledgebase information. The database layer 40 can also be a repository foroperational data including the participants, schedules, assessmentresults, and student curriculum. Data warehousing functions andstatistical analysis of attendance data as well as assessment andlearning data and student data are also performed by the database layer40. The database layer 40 also manages the knowledge base comprising,electronic instructional material, supplemental educational content,technical support, and customer service information.

The back-end layer 38 tracks various activities and inputs of eachstudent and records student input data, either automatically through thestudent workstations 32, or manually as results of teacher inputs from ateacher workstation 34. The back-end application layer 38 is alsoresponsible for delivering instructional materials to the user interfacelayer 30. The back-end application layer 38 also tracks deliveries ofinstructional materials to student workstations for charge calculationand billing purposes. The back-end application layer 38 also performscredit card processing and billing functions, for example, on a sessionby session basis, time or other criteria, as further described below.

Once enrolled, the student is scheduled to attend one or more learningsessions. The scheduled learning sessions may or may not be based on aprescription generated in accordance the student profile. For example, astudent participating in a home work help program may schedule alearning sessions without prescription. A scheduling node (locatedanywhere in the system) tracks and manages student scheduling. A teacherstudent matching node runs a matching algorithm for matching studentsand teachers at the point of delivery of the learning sessions.

The operations layer 42 provides content management workflow, includingthe curriculum development, editing and reviewing the developmentinformation. The operation layer 42 also manages marketing and CRM(customer relationship management) workflow. This layer also providesfor lead/prospect follow-up functions, technical support problems, andproduct inquiries. The operation layer 42 interfaces with operationalstaff layer 44 that comprises personal tech support, customer serviceand analyst information. The operation layer also provides for routingof information over the network for sessions and load balancing of theteacher's as well as skills matching.

In-Center and Online Enrollment

As stated before, a student may enroll in an educational program at alearning center or online with or without taking an assessment test.Enrollment may be related to attending learning session in an in-centereducational program, online educational program or by an educationalprogram. An enrollment may or may not involve a pre-enrollmentconference with the student and/or a responsible authority. Thefollowing describes the various systems, utilities or components andprocess that enroll students in the system of the present invention.

In one embodiment of the invention, before a student can participate inan educational program, the student is enrolled at a learning centerusing an in-center learning process. According to an embodiment of theinvention, the student may take an assessment test prior to enrollmentat the educational program. An assessment of student skills may beconducted in an assessment center. An assessment center can comprise anyenvironment, virtual or non-virtual, that assesses a student's skills tocreate student profiles containing one or more learning objectives. Inone embodiment, each student takes a battery of online tests at avirtual assessment center using a student workstation. The assessmenttests are generally designed to identify student abilities to performdifferent tasks or a mastery of certain learning objectives or skills.After the student takes the assessment, an educational program involvingone or more learning objectives is created. Such learning objectivesbecome part of the student's profile. The assessment test may be astandardized test evaluating a student's academic skills within aparticular area. Exemplary assessment tests are the CaliforniaAchievement Test, Fifth Edition (CAT/5) and the Northwest EducationalAssociation (NEWA) Meausure of Academic Progress (MAP) test.Non-standardized tests may also be provided for assessment of students'skills. Such tests could be more focused on the particularities of theavailable learning programs.

In one embodiment of the invention, the assessment test is used todetermine a set of skill gaps for the student. For example, theassessment test can assess a sixth grade student's reading skills to beat a fourth-grade level and the student's math skills to be at afifth-grade level. Based on the assessment test results, the student isprescribed a learning program tailored to the student's needs and skillgaps in order to assist the student to meet or surpass the skill levelof his or her grade.

In one exemplary embodiment of the invention, the assessment test isconducted in a non-virtual classroom at a learning center using physicalinstructional material or electronic instructional material. In anotherexemplary embodiment, the assessment test is conducted using electronicinstructional material. Thus, the assessment test may be administeredwith traditional paper-and-pencil exam and later scored manually orusing a computer. The results of the assessment test are then stored ina database within the learning center. In an alternative exemplaryembodiment, where the student is associated with a virtual learningcenter, the student takes an online assessment test. The completed testis then submitted to a teacher, staff, or director associated with thevirtual learning center, who grades the test and store the test resultsinto a database associated with the virtual learning center. The onlineassessment test administered online or in a non-virtual classroom may beprovided in a form that can be automatically graded by the learningcenter server and stored at the learning center database.

After the assessment test is graded and stored, a student profile iscreated in the learning center database identifying the student's skillgaps. In one exemplary embodiment, the student profile includes aprescription for the student with one or more learning objectivestailored at assisting the student achieve such goals. The details ofgenerating student profiles and delivery of instructional material basedthereon are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,148.

In an embodiment of the invention, after the completion of the in-centerenrollment, an online enrollment takes place to enroll the student atone or more online educational programs offered by the online learningsystem 130. In one embodiment, a pre-enrollment conference is conductedwith the student and the associated responsible authority. Thepre-enrollment conference may be conducted at a learning center orvirtually online over the network. During the enrollment conference, thestudent selects one or more online educational programs to enroll. Inone embodiment, the student can also specify a preferred schedule,wherein the student selects “preferred timeslots” to be scheduled for anonline educational program. For example, the student can select “Tuesdayand Wednesday from 2-3 pm” for online math and “Monday and Thursdaysfrom 4-5 pm” for online reading as the preferred schedule. In a furtherembodiment, the student can also designate a “teacher preference”, whichcan include a list of teachers that the student wishes to be associatedwith and/or a list of teachers that the student wishes to avoid. In oneembodiment, all the information relating to student preferences isstored in the EOU database 222 and/or lookup database 220.

After the pre-enrollment conference, the student is enrolled for one ormore online educational programs using an enrollment utility. Theenrollment utility is an application executed on the learning centerserver 210 or any node. The enrollment utility uses the student's data,including the student's profile and prescription, the student'sdemographics, the assessment results, the student's billing andscheduling information, etc. to enroll the student at one or more onlineeducational programs of the online learning system 130. Alternatively,the enrollment utility may be a web-based application that allows anenrollment administrator to upload the student's information to theonline learning system 130.

FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary flow diagram of the process taken by theenrollment utility to enroll a student at an online educational program.The enrollment utility retrieves assessment results and student profilefrom a database, block 502. The enrollment utility also retrievesstudent and/or responsible authority data from a billing and/orscheduling database, block 504. This information includes the student'savailability, preferred schedule, and teacher preference.

Based on the student's preferred schedule, the enrollment utilitycreates a master schedule for the student, block 506. In one embodiment,the enrollment utility also looks up teacher availability andstatistical data relating to learning sessions from the online learningportal 102 and uses that information in creating the student's masterschedule. Using this arrangement, the enrollment utility can, forexample, avoid scheduling the student within timeslots that have a highstudent/teacher ratio. Also, if the student has designated a teacherpreference, the enrollment utility can use that information to match thestudent's schedule with the preferred teacher's availability.

Once the student master schedule is created, the enrollment utilitypresents the schedule, as well as other enrollment data, to the studentand/or responsible authority, block 508. In one embodiment, the studentand/or responsible authority are presented with a confirmation screen,where they can either confirm or modify the information. If theinformation is modified, the EOU database 222, and/or the billing andscheduling databases 226, 228, are updated accordingly.

After confirmation, the student's information, including the assessmentresults, student profile, and enrollment data, are transferred to theonline learning portal 102, block 510. In an exemplary embodiment, theinformation is formatted as XML strings and delivered to the onlinelearning portal 102 via http post. The XML string may be encryptedbefore delivery in order to provide further information security. Theonline learning portal 102 then decrypts and stores the data in theportal database 140. The online learning portal 102 also transmits thedata to the online learning system 130.

In one embodiment, the enrollment utility stores the student data intothe EOU lookup database 220, block 512. The EOU lookup database 220 canbe used for future audit and/or lookup purposes. The enrollment utilityalso uses the student's master schedule to create billing transactionsin the billing database 228, block 514. The billing transactions arelater used, along with the student's attendance record, to createbilling for student accounts.

FIG. 6A shows an exemplary Enrollment screen 600 of the enrollmentutility software according to an embodiment of the invention. In thisembodiment, the enrollment screen 600 includes a student/programselection field 602, a student information field 604, a subject datainformation field 606, a responsible authority information field 608, aother information field 610, a scheduling field 612, and a commentsfield 614. An enrollment administrator may use the student/programselection field 602 to select a student for enrollment at an onlineeducational program. Once a student is selected, the student'sinformation is downloaded from the EOU database 222 and/or billing andscheduling databases 226, 228 and displayed in the student informationfield 604. The information relating to the student's responsibleauthority and other student information are also downloaded anddisplayed in the responsible authority information field 608 and otherinformation field 610, respectively. Also, the student's masterschedule, if any, is downloaded from the scheduling database 226 anddisplayed in the scheduling field 612. The enrollment administrator maymodify the information within any of the above fields. Once theinformation is submitted from the enrollment utility screen 600, anenrollment request is submitted to the online learning system 130 forprocessing. FIG. 6 a has a tab for selecting student data and subjectdata field.

FIG. 6B shows the Enrollment screen 600 of FIG. 6A in which the subjectdata field 606 tab is selected by the enrollment administrator. Thesubject data field 606 displays the information relating to the onlineeducational program that the student is being enrolled for. The subjectdata 606 information is retrieved from the EOU database 222, but can bemodified by the enrollment administrator.

FIG. 6C shows an exemplary student selection box 620 of the enrollmentutility according to an embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment,the selection box 620 includes a search field by student first name 622and last name 624, as well as a display field 626 which lists thestudents first name, middle initial, last name, and birth date. Theenrollment administrator may query a student first and/or last name inthe search fields 622, 624. The enrollment utility then searches forstudents matching the queried name in the EOU database 222. In oneembodiment, in order for a student to be included in the search query,he or she must be currently enrolled at the learning center. Also, in afurther embodiment, the student must have taken an assessment testwithin a predefined time period, e.g., 5 months, before the data ofonline enrollment. In a yet further embodiment, only students who havenot yet enrolled for any online learning programs are included in thesearch query. The enrollment administrator may select the student toenroll, and the student data is automatically retrieved from the EOUdatabase 222.

Synchronization Utility

According to an embodiment of the invention, the system of the presentinvention is provided with a synchronization utility to synchronizestudent data, teacher data, responsible authority party data, and otherdata between the learning centers 104 a-c and the online learning system130 (shown in FIG. 1). The synchronization utility may be embodiedwithin any node in the system, including the learning center servers210, the online learning system 130, and/or the online learning portal102. The synchronization utility can be invoked from any node tosynchronize the data at that node or at another node. For example, alearning center may invoke the synchronization utility to update studentdata stored at the learning center EOU database 222, to update studentdata stored at the portal database 140, or to update student data at adatabase connected to the online learning system 130. Also, thesynchronization utility can be invoked to update a single record, aplurality of records, or all database records. Further, thesynchronization utility can be invoked automatically at predefined timeintervals (e.g. hourly, daily, weekly, etc.), it can be invoked in realtime by another process (e.g. the scheduling utility may invoke thesynchronization utility during a student's scheduling), or in can beinvoked manually (e.g. by a system administrator). Upon invocation, thesynchronization utility uploads (and/or downloads) corresponding recordsfrom another database within the system into a database connected to theinitiating node. This allows uniformity of data between the differentnodes in the system.

FIG. 7 depicts an exemplary flow chart of the synchronization processaccording to an embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, a userat a learning center (i.e. a synchronization administrator) accesses thesynchronization utility on the learning center server 210 to start thesynchronization process of a record related to a student, teacher,responsible authority, etc, block 702. In one embodiment, the requestmay specify a node from which the record is to be updated. For example,the synchronization administrator can specify that the record is to besynchronized with the portal data, the online system data, or data fromother learning centers.

Upon receiving the request for record synchronization, the learningcenter's synchronization utility sends a request for synchronization ofthat record to the online learning portal 102, block 704. The onlinelearning portal 102 then retrieves user records from the designateddatabase, block 706. Thereafter, the online learning portal transfersthe retrieved records to the synchronization utility of the requestingnode, block 708, and the synchronization utility updates the records inthe node's database, block 710.

In one embodiment, the online learning portal 102 sends a request to thedesignated node to retrieve the data from its database and send it backto the online learning portal 102. In yet another embodiment, therequesting node sends a request directly to the designated node fordata, therefore bypassing the online learning portal 102. The extracteddata may be transmitted as an XML string(s) and delivered back to theoriginating node. For added security, the strings may be encryptedbefore transmission and later decrypted at the originating node.

In one embodiment of the invention, the synchronization utility isconfigured to run at pre-set periods (e.g. daily) throughout the systemto synchronize the online learning system 130 data with the data storedEOU database 222 and billing and scheduling databases 226, 228 at thevarious learning centers 104 a-c (shown in FIGS. 1 and 2). This ensuresthe uniformity of data between the learning centers and the onlinelearning system 130. The synchronization utility is also configured torun upon request from a user or a process. Therefore, in one embodiment,the start of a learning session invokes the synchronization utility tosynchronize the data between the student's learning center and theonline learning system 130.

Description of the Online Learning Environment

FIG. 8 depicts an exemplary flow diagram of a process taken by theonline learning portal 102 to log a user into the online learning system130. The process begins by presenting the portal home page to the user,block 802. The user then selects a login option (e.g. student, parent,teacher, etc.), block 804. After the selection of a login option, theprocess determines whether a cookie exists for the user at the user'sworkstation, block 806. If not, the user is presented with a loginscreen, where they can put in their user ID and password, block 808.Thereafter, the user ID and password is authenticated, block 810, acookie is set for the user, block 812, and the user is logged into theonline learning portal, block 814. In one embodiment, each user ID isassociated with a login option, so instead of presenting a user with alogin option screen, user ID and password is authenticated and the loginoption is set thereafter.

FIG. 9A depicts an exemplary student login page 900. FIG. 9B depicts anexemplary student page 920 where the student is directed to aftersuccessful login. The student page 920 includes a link 922 to thestudent's next scheduled session. If the student arrives at the sessionbefore the scheduled start time, the student is directed to a virtualcommunity room with other students, where they can interact with orwithout teacher involvement. Once the learning session starts, thestudents are directed to a student learning session screen. FIG. 9Cdepicts an exemplary student learning session screen 940.

FIG. 10A depicts an exemplary teacher login page 1000 according toembodiments of the invention. FIG. 10B depicts an exemplary student page1020 where the teacher is directed to after successful login. Theteacher page 1020 includes a link 1022 to the teacher's next scheduledsession. If the teacher arrives before the scheduled start time, theteacher is directed to the virtual community room. Once the learningsession starts, the teacher is directed to a teacher learning sessionscreen. FIG. 10C depicts an exemplary teacher learning session screen1040, which includes a tab 1042 for each student present at the learningsession. The teacher learning session screen 1040 also includes a leftpanel 1044, where the teacher can select instructional material to sendto a student, grade the student's answer's, etc. The teacher learningsession screen 1040 also includes a right panel 1046, where the teacherviews the instructional material presented to the student, as well asthe activities of the student.

FIG. 11A depicts an exemplary responsible authority (e.g. parent) loginpage 1100 according to one embodiment. FIG. 11B depicts an exemplaryresponsible authority page 1120 where the responsible authority (in thiscase, the parent) is directed to after successful login. The responsibleauthority page 1120 includes a panel 1122, in which the parent can viewthe student's account, including the student's schedule, progressreport, academic report, etc. The responsible authority can also changestudent password and schedule.

Virtual Community Rooms

According to one aspect of the present invention, the collaborationlayer creates the virtual community room prior to the start of thelearning sessions. A virtual community room can be any computersimulated environment created over a network that allows for interactionamongst plurality of students with or without a teacher. A virtualcommunity room is created by interconnecting communication channel endpoints of the virtual community room participants to each other.Exemplary virtual community rooms comprise text, audio or video or mediachat rooms where students interact with each other over a network withor without teacher involvement. Such virtual community rooms can becreated prior to the start of a learning session or after a learningsession ends. In this, the virtual community room becomes a transitionclassroom associated with the start of one learning session and thebeginning of another learning session.

In one embodiment, the virtual community room is created for a virtualclassroom at a predefined time period before the scheduled start time ofa learning session (e.g., 15 minutes before the learning session). Inthis embodiment, as students and teachers are matched and assigned to avirtual classroom, they may enter the virtual community room. At the endof the learning session, the students may either log in or close thelearning session, or they may remain in the virtual classroom. If theyremain in the virtual classroom, they are automatically transferred fromthe learning session into the virtual community room.

In an alternate embodiment, all students and teachers are directed to avirtual community room upon login. In this embodiment, the virtualcommunity room may be associated with a specific time spot. The studentsand teachers may wait in the virtual community room until they arematched with one another and are assigned a virtual classroom. At thatpoint the students and teachers are transferred from the virtualcommunity room into the learning sessions of their assigned virtualclassrooms.

Student/Teacher Scheduling Utility

As previously discussed, a master schedule is created for a student atenrollment. A master schedule is similarly created for teachers based onteacher's availability and timing preference. The student and masterschedule may be stored at any node within the network. For example, thestudent's master schedule may be stored at the student's learning centerand the online learning system. Similarly, the teacher's master schedulemay be stored at the online learning system. In one embodiment, inaddition to the student and teacher's preference, other factors such ashistoric and statistical data relating to network traffic,teacher/student ratio, etc. is also accounted for in creating a teacheror student master schedule.

In one embodiment, a periodic (e.g. a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly,quarterly, etc.) schedule is set for each student and teacher based ontheir master schedule. A scheduling utility manages the periodicscheduling of students and teachers within the system. The periodschedule outlines the class schedule for the teacher or student'sfollowing time period. In creating the period schedule, the schedulingutility accounts for statistical data such as the number of availableteachers for a given time slot, the number of scheduled students forthat time slot, the number of available teachers for a given subjectmatter for the given time slot, etc. The scheduling utility may alsoconsider historical data such as historic ratio of teacher/studentwithin that time slot.

In one embodiment, the scheduling utility uses historical data tocalculate a predicted percentage of students that will not show up for alearning session within a specific time slot. For example, thescheduling utility may determine that based on historical data, 8% ofstudents scheduled for math sessions on Mondays from 4-5 pm do not showup. Based on this prediction, the scheduling utility calculates apredicted number of students that will show up for the learning session.Thus, in the previous example, if 800 students are scheduled for math onMonday from 4-5 pm, the scheduling utility predicts that 64 of the 800students will not show up. Based on this prediction, the schedulingutility schedules enough math teachers for only 736 students within thattime slot. In a further embodiment, the scheduling utility alsoschedules a number of teachers as “on-call” so that in the event thatthe number of students that show up to the learning session exceeds thepredicted number, the on-call teachers can be called upon to teach theadditional students.

A scheduling utility run anywhere within the system that manages ascheduling database for storing and retrieving student and teacherschedules with respect to the learning sessions. Student schedules arestored in one or more student information databases that correlatestudents with registered learning session schedules. Teacher schedulesare stored in one or more teacher information databases that correlateteachers' availability for teaching learning sessions. The schedulingutility also keeps track of all the changes made to the schedulinginformation of teachers and students.

Session Management Utility

Prior to the start of the learning sessions, a session managementutility anywhere in the system runs a matching algorithm for matchingstudents with teachers and assigning learning sessions to the studentsand teachers. For matching students with teachers, the matchingalgorithm takes into account various matching parameters. Exemplarymatching parameters include, student attributes (e.g., age, grade,etc.), teacher attributes (e.g., skills, hourly rate, availability,etc.), historical and statistical data related to teacher and studentavailability and attendance parameters (e.g., “no show,” late”,“available”, “unavailable”, etc.), preference attributes (“Preferred” or“Avoid”) and learning session attributes (e.g., student/teacher ratios).After the a teacher is matched with one or more students, the teacherand students are assigned a learning session.

FIG. 12 shows an exemplary flow diagram of the process taken by thesession management utility placing teachers and students in appropriatelearning sessions. As students and teachers log in to the onlinelearning portal 102 prior to the start of a scheduled learning session,that information is received by the session management utility, block1102. The session management utility pairs or matches the students withteachers as they come in for a scheduled learning session based on thematching parameters discussed above, block 1104. The teacher and thestudents are then assigned a learning session (or a virtual classroom),block 1106. Thereafter, the learning session commenced at the scheduledstart time and ends at the scheduled end time. The session managementutility waits for the end of the learning session, block 1108, andterminates the learning session, block 1110. In an embodiment of theinvention where a virtual community room is available before and afterthe learning session, the session management utility waits for thestudents an the teacher to log out before terminating the communityroom. An exemplary sequence diagram of the session management process isdepicted is FIG. 13.

A load balancing node uses teacher preference attributes to balanceteacher utilization loads statically or dynamically as such loadsdevelop. In one embodiment, the teacher utilization load is balanced bythe teacher selection controller in terms of teacher schedules andavailability, among other things. In this way, teacher resources areused flexibly (either dynamically or statically) by assigning teachersto students that fit a teacher load balancing requirement. The onlinelearning system also performs a capacity planning by determining howmany sessions are to be held during a given time. The system thendetermines how many teachers are currently assigned for teaching duringthat given time. The system uses this data to determine how many moreteachers are needed. By performing the capacity planning, the systemarranges for scheduling more teachers during specific times ahead whereteacher shortages are expected.

Each learning session has a defined set of “Events” that relate tostudent activity and conduct toward the learning session. In oneembodiment, the Events are divided into a plurality of two groups:Session Events and Schedule Events. Exemplary Session Events are SHOWED(S), MATCHED (M), and ENTERED (E). SHOWED means that the studentlogged-in within a configured window around their scheduled session.MATCHED means that the student was matched with a teacher in thescheduling system and session record(s) have been created. ENTERED meansthat the student started the session, e.g., by clicking a “BeginSession” button on his or her transition page to get into the session.Exemplary Scheduling Events are Cancel (CX), Late Cancel (LCX),Reschedule (RS), Late Reschedule (LRS) and NoShow (NS). The schedulingsystem captures these Events.

Student Teacher Matching Based on Responsible Authority Rules

According to another aspect of the present invention, the matching ofteachers to one or a group of students is based on attributes associatedwith the requirement of a responsible authority. For example, certainresponsible authorities, e.g., one or more school districts, couldrequire teachers having defined attributes to teach the students.Exemplary responsible authority defined attributes relate to parametersor rules associated with a teacher's certification, teacher's compliancewith regulations, etc. One exemplary responsible authority rule mayrequire teacher certification in certain skills, background criminal orsecurity clearance (by FBI, National Security Agency (NSA), Departmentof Homeland security or their equivalents internationally), fields ofeducation, or immunization for one or more diseases. A teacher selectionnode selects teachers based on responsible authority attributes andmatches the selected teachers with students that are associated with theresponsible authority.

Student Teacher Matching Based on Teacher Preference Attributes

According to another aspect of the present invention, the matching ofteachers to one or a group of students is based on attributes associatedwith either students' preferences or responsible authority preferenceswith respect to a teacher. According to one embodiment of the invention,each teacher is categorized relative to a student's or responsibleauthority's preferences. Exemplary preference categories include“preferred,” “not-preferred,” or “avoid,” etc. The preferenceattributes, either student's or his or her associated responsibleauthority's, are stored in student account records created after studentenrollment. A suitably configured matching algorithm retrieves thepreference attributes and based on scheduling information with thelearning sessions matches students with preferred teachers prior to thestart of the learning sessions. According to another aspect, teacherselection may be based on teacher's preference with respect to astudent. Under this arrangement, each student can be categorized basedon a teacher's preference attributes, which are taken into accountduring teacher student matching process.

Teacher Scheduling and Work Flow Management

Another aspect of the present invention relates to managing teacher workflow. In one embodiment of the present invention, the teacherinformation is entered into the scheduling system to generate teacherschedules for teaching one or more learning sessions. Exemplary teacherinformation include subject certification (e.g., math, reading etc.)along with availability data, (e.g., days and hours of the week thatteacher is available to teach, etc.) If necessary, ratio capabilities,as well as fingerprint and background clearance specific information aretaken into account for teacher scheduling. Once a teacher's schedule isgenerated, learning sessions can be added or deleted from the schedule.The schedule adjustments are made to meet an optimum teacher utilizationrequirement, for example, to reduce operating expenses of the learningsystem. Periodically, e.g., each week, student schedule information areprocessed relative to availability information stored in teacherschedules, taking into account student instructional need and preferenceattributes for matching teachers with students. The process also takesinto account teacher conflict and excess information to determine ifthere enough teachers to support student schedules for all offeredlearning sessions during scheduled hours of the day. At defined timeintervals, e.g., once a week, an automated master teacher schedule isgenerated and sent to the teachers via a communication mechanism such asan email advising them of their teaching assignment for an upcomingperiod, e.g., the following Sunday through Monday.

In one embodiment, corresponding teacher web pages display teacherschedules and assignment information for a defined period of time. Theteachers are also provided with the ability to view new or additionalscheduling needs that may arise after master schedules for a definedperiod are generated. Teachers wishing to be placed on schedules maynominate themselves by going to a teacher nominations site on theirteacher web page. Nominated teachers can select desired times (e.g.,days and/or hours) to be added to their schedule. The teacher nominationinformation is processed in view of new or revised schedulingrequirements to generate a supplemental schedule on an as needed basis.By nominating themselves, in one embodiment, teachers agree to certainnotification terms for teaching a scheduled learning session. In oneembodiment, the nominated teachers agree to teach the learning sessionup to one hour prior to its scheduled time without any additionalnotification. In the event that the number of students scheduled for aparticular hour decreases, schedule conflict and excess information areprocessed to remove teachers for teacher schedules as necessary.

Teacher Assignment Based on Student/Teacher Ratios Associated with aPlurality of Learning Sessions

According to a teacher work flow management aspect of the presentinvention a system and method for assigning students to learningsessions determines teachers capability or qualification with respect tohandling a range of student/teacher ratios during the learning sessions.More specifically, teacher assignment to a learning session associatesteachers with one or more learning sessions through matching, schedulingor assignment. Each teacher is assigned an initial qualificationparameter that can be adjusted based on future teaching assignmentsassociated with teaching additional learning sessions. Each learningsession has a corresponding student/teacher ratio. Exemplarystudent/teacher ratios are 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 10:1, 20:1, etc. In order toteach during a learning session with a specific student/teacher ratio,the teacher requires a commensurate qualification parameter. Thus, thestudent/teacher ratio of the learning centers are associated withcorresponding qualification parameters. In one embodiment, learningsessions with higher student/teacher ratios require teachers with higherteaching qualifications. According to this embodiment of the invention,the teaching qualifications are determined based on the number oflearning sessions and the student/teacher ratios of the learningsessions associated with the teacher. In other words, a teacher who hasconducted a larger number of learning sessions with a higherstudent/teacher ratios, e.g., 3:1, is determined to be more qualifiedthan a teacher that has conducted a smaller number of lowerstudent/teacher ratios, e.g., 1:1. Thus, the qualification parameters ofthe teachers can be characterized by the number of learning sessions andtheir associated student/teacher ratios. Processing the number oflearning sessions taught by the teachers and the student/teacher ratiosof the learning sessions results in determination of correspondingqualifications parameters. The qualification parameter of the teachersis adjusted as the number of associated learning sessions and thestudent/teacher ratios of the learning sessions change. For example,qualification parameter measures for a teacher increase with theincrease in the number of learning sessions taught by the teacher as theteacher conducts more and more learning sessions. Furthermore, thequalification parameter measures for a teacher can increases withconducting learning sessions with higher student/teacher ratios. Thepresent invention associates the teachers with learning sessions havingrespective student/teacher ratios to determine teacher qualificationparameters that are adjusted over time to qualify teachers teachinglower student/teacher ratio learning sessions to teach during higherstudent/teacher ratio learning sessions.

The qualification parameters for teachers can be defined by any suitablequalitative and/or qualitative measures, such as scores, etc. Letsassume learning sessions with 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 10:1, 20:1 ratios areassigned scores of 1, 2, 3, 10 and 20 respectively. A teacher havingconducted ten (10) 1:1 learning sessions, five (5) 2:1 learning sessionsand two (2) 3:1 learning sessions would have a qualification parameterscore of twenty six (26) derived from the following (10*1+5*2+2*3). Thepresent invention uses qualification rules for qualifying the teachersto teach in learning sessions with different student/teacher ratios. Forexample, a qualification score of zero (0) or more qualifies teaching in1:1 learning session, score of 10 or more qualifies teaching in 2:1learning sessions, score of 15 or more qualifies teaching in 3:1learning sessions, score of 20 or more qualifies teaching in 10:1learning sessions. The qualification rules set forth herein areexemplary and such rules can be designed to achieve any desired teacherutilization and work flow management objective. The system and methodaccording to this aspect of the present invention assesses teacher'squalifications based on the number of previously taught learningsessions and their corresponding student/teacher ratios and moves theirassignment qualifications for example from 1:1 sessions to 2:1 sessionsand from 2:1 sessions to 3:1 sessions and so on. The movement order ofsuch session assignment qualification can also be designed to achieveany desired teacher utilization and work flow management objective.

Session Billing Based on Third Party Attributes

An accounting block (or node anywhere in the system) creates studentaccounts based the Enrollment information received at suitable dataentry nodes. A student account database contains student recordscorrelated based on student Enrollment information for storing studentaccount information. The accounting system also has a billing parameterdatabase for storing billing parameters used for charging a responsibleauthority, such as a parent or another type responsible third party,which has responsibility for one or more student accounts. Oneresponsible authority, such as a parent, may have responsibility for onestudent account. Another responsible authority, such as a public schooldistrict may have responsibility for thousands of student accounts.Examples of responsible authorities can include any type ofgovernmental, public or private authorities. In an exemplary embodiment,the billing parameters are derived based on rules agreed to by aresponsible authority. The rules define one or more criterion forcharging a learning session to a student account. In one embodiment, thecriterion for charging a learning session are related to a student'sconduct or activity with respect to an enrolled learning session. Anexemplary rule would allow charging a student account only if thestudent attends at least 30 minutes of an hour learning session, orshows for any portion of a session, late cancellation, etc. The systemand method according to this aspect of the present invention alsoincorporates provisions for administrative override of the rules,allowing an administrator adjust charges and credits as necessaryoutside of the rules.

The accounting system therefore includes a billing parameter data entrynode for receiving and recoding billing parameter information fromresponsible authorities. After enrollment, each student registers forone or more learning sessions in accordance with a schedule. A schedulernode associates each student account record with one or more registeredlearning sessions. A student activity data entry node receivesinformation related to student activity with respect to the enrolledlearning stations. The student activity information can be derived forexample by determining whether a student starts a learning sessions asscheduled. The student activity information can be any information ordata related to a student's conduct towards an enrolled learningsession. Examples of student activity information include but are notlimited to student attendance and progress information. For example,student attendance information can be categorized based on whether thestudent showed up to the learning session at all, time of attendance,duration of attendance, completion of a learning session, etc. Exemplaryattendance categories are “no show,” “late,” “incomplete”, “complete,”“excused absence” or “unexcused absence.” In one embodiment, certainattendance categories may be rescheduled, i.e., made up, with or withouta charge in accordance with a set of makeup rules. Other examples ofsuch makeup rules would allow for makeup sessions 1) within certainnumber of days (e.g., 7 days) of the original scheduled session, on thesame subject, 2) if an excused absence 3) in case of force Majeure 3) incase of teacher unavailability or 3) no-show due to technical reasons.Other categories may be charged to a learning center, thereby allowingthe learning center to decide whether to charge the student account ornot. For example, the “unexcused absences” may be billed to the learningcenters, but unexcused absences may be rescheduled. Other studentactivity information relate to a student's progress towards a learningobjective. For example, teachers can enter student progress informationbased on student inputs or answers, test scores, teacher comments, etc.Progress information may also be retrieved automatically without teacherintervention based on student inputs alone. Under this arrangement,responsible authority may be billed on a student account may be chargedif the student meets progress criteria agreed to with the responsibleauthority.

The accounting node processes Enrollment information and studentactivity information according to one or more retrieved billingparameters in order to determine charge information for each learningsession. The charge information can be categorized based on chargeamount, e.g., hourly rate, fixed fee rate, or by minute. The chargeinformation can also relate to chargeability status defined by chargedesignation, such as “billable” or “non billable.” An accounting nodecorrelates charge information for each learning session with the studentaccount information. The accounting node records the charge informationin the corresponding student records. The accounting node then processesthe charge information as needed for generating learning session billinginformation for the responsible authority, for example, hourly, daily,monthly, etc.

A method for administering a learning environment according to thisembodiment of the invention, enters student Enrollment information forcreating student account records and associates the student Enrollmentinformation with one or more learning sessions. The method also entersstudent activity information and associates the student activityinformation with learning sessions. According to this method, studentactivity information are processed in accordance with the one or morebilling parameters to determine charge information for each learningsession based on the student activity information and the one or morebilling parameters. The charge information are associated with thecorresponding student records and processed for billing a responsibleauthority.

In one exemplary embodiment, one or more school districts areresponsible authorities for a corresponding group of students. Eachschool district has billing rules included in a contract that governsadministering educational programs to a group of students. According tothis embodiment, every student is grouped under a contract, whichdefines the billing parameters for a billable learning session and asuccessful learning session.

A billing software processes the contract parameters in conjunction withthe captured Events to determine if a student session is billable. Theprocess requires retrieval of captured Schedule Events from thescheduling system. Based on the Schedule Events, the billing softwarecreates Session Events (S,M,E) for any student session in the databasethat does not have corresponding entries. This can happen as a result ofthe disconnected process that creates those events. Finally, once all ofthe needed data is stored, the billing software applies the billingrules to determine if the learning session is billable or not.

Session Billing Based on Channel Activity

In another embodiment, the billing parameters are derived based on rulesrelating to monitored activities over communication channels used duringthe learning sessions. In this way, the criterion for charging alearning session are related to communications activities over thechannels used during learning sessions. An exemplary embodiment monitorsthe communication channels and derive communication activity parameters.The communications activity parameters are used to charge a studentaccount in accordance with predefined rules, for example if a sessionfails due to a bad connection.

A communications activity data entry node receives information relatedto communications activity during the learning sessions. Thecommunications activity information can be any information or datarelated to data transfers (e.g., text, voice, video, image, controlinformation packet transfers) as well channel quality attributes (e.g.,text, voice, video, image quality, bit error rate, etc.). A processingnode processes Enrollment information and channel activity informationaccording to one or more retrieved channel activity related billingparameters in order to determine charge information for each learningsession. The charge information can be categorized based on chargeamount, e.g., hourly rate, fixed fee rate. The charge information canalso relate to a chargeability status defined by a suitable chargedesignation, such as “billable” or “non billable.” An accounting nodecorrelates charge information for each learning session with the studentaccount information. The accounting node records the charge informationin the corresponding student records. The accounting node then processesthe charge information as needed for generating learning session billinginformation for the responsible authority, for example, hourly, daily,monthly, etc.

Accordingly, a number of factors determine “billability” of a session.For example, for an institutional responsible authority, such as aschool district Institutional, the charge rule may be a session lengthof a first defined length, (e.g., 15 minutes), and at least a firstnumber of lessons scored (e.g., 1). For an individual responsibleauthority, e.g., a parent, a student session length of at least a seconddefined length (e.g., 45 minutes) may be required for charging theaccount where student being late or leaves early is counted in thesession length. In addition, a second count numbers for lessons scored(e.g., 2) may be used for charging student accounts associated with anindividual responsible authority. Thus, the charge rules for studentaccounts can be related to various types of responsible authorityattributes. The charge rules associated with different types ofresponsible authority can apply corresponding rules for charginglearning session where the student is a no-show. For example no-showscan be charged to the student accounts if student/responsible party doesnot cancel the session within a stipulated billing parameters, forexample by noon time of the day a session is scheduled or a definednumber of hours (e.g., three (3) hours) prior to a session start.

Learning session events can be cascaded to determine the ultimatebillability of the learning session. Session and Schedule Eventsdescribed above illustrate a typical cascading of applicable billingrules. A path that routes a session through determining session events,and session factors (e.g. lessons scored, session length, teachersubmitting comments or assessment, and student logging in late orleaving) can be augmented by various session quality indices which takeinto account various technical (e.g. communication channel quality) andacademic quality indicators (e.g. progress, etc.). If during theevaluation of billable status through session events, factors, andquality indices, it is determined that scheduling influences thebillable status, these scheduling events and factors are worked into thebilling rules criteria. In one embodiment, the billing rules areconfigured on a per student and per contract basis. So if for exampleContract A allows for billable session that have 45 minutes and onelesson scored, yet Contract B requires 50 minutes, two lessons scored,and students master at least one skill, then sessions that are groupedunder these contracts have their billable status set accordingly. FIGS.14A-E are exemplary flow charts implementing one embodiment of anaccounting utility used for charging learning sessions to studentaccounts.

FIG. 15A is an exemplary flow diagram of an educational method usingvirtual classrooms according to one embodiment of the invention. In FIG.15A, a teacher is selected for a student based on one or more matchingparameters, block 1502. Thereafter, a virtual community room is createdfor the selected teacher and student prior to a predetermined starttime, block 1504. The selected teacher and student are then transferredfrom the virtual community room to a learning session at thepredetermined start time, block 1506.

FIG. 15B is an exemplary flow diagram of an educational method usingvirtual classrooms according to another embodiment of the invention. InFIG. 15B, a virtual community room is provided to a student prior to apredetermined time where the student can interact with other studentswithin the virtual community room, block 1512. The student is thentransferred from the virtual classroom to a learning session at thepredetermined time, where the student can interact with a teacher, block1514.

From the foregoing it would be appreciated that a system for instructiona student comprises an online learning system having one or more nodesthat creates a learning session at a session start time. The onlinelearning node creates a learning environments having a virtual classroomsuch that at the virtual class room, at least one student can view theactivity associated with at least one other student with or withoutteacher involvement. A database stores one or more matching parametersfor matching on or more students with one or more teachers. A matchingnode selects a teacher for a plurality of students for the onlinelearning session based on the one or more matching parameters. Theonline learning node places the plurality of students in the virtualclass room after the matching node matches the teacher and one or morestudents and prior to the session start time. According to anotheraspect, the virtual classroom is created between a first online learningsession and a second online learning session scheduled for a studentconsecutively.

1. A system for instruction a student comprising: an online learningsystem having one or more nodes that creates a learning session at asession start time, wherein the online learning node creates a learningenvironments having a virtual classroom, wherein at the virtual classroom, at least one student can view the activity associated with atleast one other student with or without teacher involvement; a databasethat stores one or more matching parameters for matching on or morestudents with one or more teachers; and a matching node that selects ateacher for a plurality of students for the online learning sessionbased on the one or more matching parameters; wherein the onlinelearning node places the plurality of students in the virtual class roomafter the matching node matches the teacher and one or more students andprior to the session start time.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein saidvirtual classroom is created between a first online learning session anda second online learning session scheduled for a student consecutively.3. The system of claim 1 further including: a database that stores oneor more matching parameters for matching on or more students with one ormore teachers; and a matching node that selects a teacher for aplurality of students for the online learning session based on the oneor more matching parameters; wherein the online learning node places theplurality of students in the virtual class room after the matching nodematches the teacher and one or more students and prior to the sessionstart time.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or more matchingparameters relate at least one of a preference attribute, one or moreresponsible authority attributes, teacher qualification parameterassociated with the student/teacher ratio of one or more learningsessions.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more responsibleauthority attributes relate to teacher certification, compliance withrules or regulations, teacher skill, security clearance by agovernmental or non-governmental agency, fields of education, orimmunization for one or more diseases.
 6. The system of claim 4, whereinthe one or more teacher preference attributes relate to one orattributes associated with at least one of students' preference,responsible authority's preference or a teacher preference.
 7. Thesystem of claim 6, wherein a teacher is categorized relative to astudent's or responsible authority's preferences in terms of preferred,not-preferred, or avoid.
 8. The system of claim 6, wherein a student iscategorized relative to a teacher's preferences in terms of preferred,not-preferred, or avoid.
 9. The system of claim 4, wherein the teacherqualification parameter is related to qualitative or qualitative teacherqualification measure.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein thequantitative qualification measure related to at least one of learningsessions taught by the teacher or a test score associated with teachingskills.
 11. The system of claim 9, the qualitative teacher qualificationmeasure relates to teacher certification or peer review.
 12. The systemof claim 4, wherein the student/teacher ratio is associated with acorresponding qualification score and wherein the qualification score isassociated with a qualification rule for teaching a learning sessionwith a corresponding student/teacher ratio.
 13. A system for instructiona student comprising: an online learning system having one or more nodesthat creates a learning session at a session start time, wherein theonline learning node creates a learning environments having a virtualclassroom, wherein at the virtual class room, at least one student canview the activity associated with at least one other student with orwithout teacher involvement, wherein said virtual classroom is createdbetween a first online learning session and a second online learningsession scheduled for a student consecutively.
 14. The system of claim13 further including: a database that stores one or more matchingparameters for matching on or more students with one or more teachers;and a matching node that selects a teacher for a plurality of studentsfor the online learning session based on the one or more matchingparameters; wherein the online learning node places the plurality ofstudents in the virtual class room after the matching node matches theteacher and one or more students and prior to the session start time.15. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more matching parametersrelate at least one of a preference attribute, one or more responsibleauthority attributes, teacher qualification parameter associated withthe student/teacher ratio of one or more learning sessions,
 16. Thesystem of claim 15, wherein the one or more responsible authorityattributes relate to teacher certification, compliance with rules orregulations, teacher skill, security clearance by a governmental ornon-governmental agency, fields of education, or immunization for one ormore diseases.
 17. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or moreteacher preference attributes relate to one or attributes associatedwith at least one of students' preference, responsible authority'spreference or a teacher preference.
 18. The system of claim 17, whereina teacher is categorized relative to a student's or responsibleauthority's preferences in terms of preferred, not-preferred, or avoid.19. The system of claim 17, wherein a student is categorized relative toa teacher's preferences in terms of preferred, not-preferred, or avoid.20. The system of claim 15, wherein the teacher qualification parameteris related to qualitative or qualitative teacher qualification measure.21. The system of claim 20, wherein the quantitative qualificationmeasure related to at least one of learning sessions taught by theteacher or a test score associated with teaching skills.
 22. The systemof claim 20, the qualitative teacher qualification measure relates toteacher certification or peer review.
 23. The system of claim 15,wherein the student/teacher ratio is associated with a correspondingqualification score and wherein the qualification score is associatedwith a qualification rule for teaching a learning session with acorresponding student/teacher ratio.